✅ SOLVED Yet another horseshoe that has stumped my local "experts"

[fuzymunky]

Guys I have hunted with that have been doing this for nearly as long as I've been alive have told me they've never seen one like this before. As I've stated in earlier posts, there was a plethora (I knew I'd get to use that word someday!) of Dragoon activity (lots of "D" eagle buttons) in the area, which would explain the plethora (there it is again!) of horseshoes. I've just never seen one spiked at the tips like this.

Is it possible this one just didn't get finished being made? That's the only suggestion that's been offered to nee so far. Appreciate any help.

 

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[charlives]

Looks like it might have been a mule shoe, but it looks longer than any I've seen.

 

[BosnMate]

Seeing as how, in another life, I've shod horses for a living, I can tell you exactly what that is, because I've made several in my life time. It's a horse shoe that has been shaped into a staple, which, in my case, was then driven into a tree that was too large to get the lead rope around, and the staple was used to tie the horse to that tree. Besides being nailed on a horses foot, horse shoes are made into all sorts of other things, including hinges, latches, and giant staples, and decorative stuff like gun racks etc. However, although I'm sure your find is not intended to go on a foot, the horseshoer's plan could have been for the heels to have been turned toward the center and welded into a bar shoe, and he never got it done. Those points are not how I would have built a bar shoe, but I don't know how everyone does things either. Here are a couple of pictures of bar shoes.

There are a number of corrective reasons to build a bar shoe. If you note the left hand shoe, there are only two nail holes on one side of the foot, which means some of the foot was broken off and the bar tied both sides together to help hold the shoe on the foot. The second photo is a standard bar shoe, and you can see that it wasn't made with the shoe being sharpened before turning and welding.

 

[tennessee digger]

I believe that BosnMate nailed it!!! Good job.

 

[fuzymunky]

Wow....just......wow. Awesome answer BosnMate. If you lived around here I'd buy you a sixer and take you to my Civil War relic honey hole.

Thanks again.

 

[Mud Hut]

I have seen shoes fasioned like this used to make "heel spoons." Spoons are extensions of the shoe's heel that are turned up the heels of the horse's hoof, and at the same angle as the hoof, that prevent the shoe from being pulled off if the horse over reaches. A good spoon should extend to the hairline at the heel, and be sturdy enough to to withstand any knocks from the hind feet without bending.

 

[Mud Hut]

Is it possible this one just didn't get finished being made? That's the only suggestion that's been offered to nee so far.

The more I look at it, I think that is a very good possibility. A shoe drawn out to fabricate spoons is generally 1 to 1.5 longer than the shoe is wide, depending oin the height of the hoof at the heel. The stock is drawn out to the neccessary length to accomodate.

 

[BosnMate]

The more I look at it, I think that is a very good possibility. A shoe drawn out to fabricate spoons is generally 1 to 1.5 longer than the shoe is wide, depending oin the height of the hoof at the heel. The stock is drawn out to the neccessary length to accomodate.

Never heard of that. Do you have pictures? I'd like to see what and find out why they are doing that. If a horse is over reaching, just make sure the heel of the shoe doesn't extend beyond the foot. I learned to shoe from a US Army trained farrier, and the text book we used was the Army Tech. manual for horse shoeing. Not a mention of heel spoons.

 

[Mud Hut]

Never heard of that. Do you have pictures? I'd like to see what and find out why they are doing that. If a horse is over reaching, just make sure the heel of the shoe doesn't extend beyond the foot. I learned to shoe from a US Army trained farrier, and the text book we used was the Army Tech. manual for horse shoeing. Not a mention of heel spoons.

One of the manuals we used was called "Elements of Farrier Science" and it was addressed in there. I have no way at the moment to copy or photograph anything, but will see if I can find somebody to do it for me.